Strong ties can undo a viral “weakling”
Its reputation as an agent of death and devastation is well deserved, backed up by grim statistics from around the globe: more than 25 million lives lost since its appearance in the early 1980s. But in the world of viruses, HIV—the virus that causes AIDS—has an Achilles heel that makes it a relative weakling, says Oveta Fuller.
“So many pathogenic viruses can’t be stopped,” she says. “The common cold, for example, or influenza. We do our best, but people still get colds and flu. HIV infection, on the other hand, is totally preventable. It’s a relatively fragile virus that can only be transmitted in certain body fluids. You can’t get it by ingestion or touch or respiratory transmission. It’s only spread by close contact with blood, breast milk, semen or vaginal fluid. That’s it. If you avoid those, you never have to worry about HIV/AIDS.”
Though those facts have been known to science for some time, the message hasn’t reached everyone who needs it, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where some 67 percent of all people infected with HIV are located. In 2000, Fuller realized she was in a unique position to help convey the information. With her laboratory research background (she spent years studying herpes simplex virus, which also is transmitted sexually) and her experience teaching students how viruses work, she certainly knew her stuff and how to communicate it. And as an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, she has connections to an extensive and well developed global network of bishops, pastors and clergy leaders, including those in southern Africa, as well as in the U.S., who have influence in their communities.
So Fuller developed a program that trains faith leaders about HIV/AIDS so they can more effectively engage with community members and organizations. By focusing on the science, Fuller’s approach sidesteps the typical resistance of many clergy to discussing a disease that spreads through behaviors that may seem to run counter to theological teachings.
“Once they understand that this is just a virus, it’s not a punishment for anything, it’s a simple virus that takes advantage of human sexuality, they are fascinated, eager to learn, and more receptive,” she says. “The science breaks the silence.”
The teaching isn’t the only science in Fuller’s approach, which she calls TMSBI, for Trusted Messenger Science-Based Intervention. As any good researcher would do, Fuller is carefully collecting and analyzing data to assess the effectiveness of TMSBI as an HIV/AIDS prevention model. Before-and-after surveys reveal how much clergy learn, and whether and how they use this knowledge to engage with their congregations and communities.
“We track how many of the religious leaders who go through the workshops are motivated to get and complete voluntary counseling and testing for HIV as a routine medical precaution,” says Fuller. “The number is pretty amazing. In Zambia, for instance, the baseline voluntary counseling and testing rate is only about 15 percent, even though one in four people is infected. But in our pilot study group, about 70 percent of the leaders who went through the TMSBI got tested within twelve months of the workshop.”
Though she might prefer to devote more time to teaching prevention than to the meticulous work of gathering data, Fuller sees that part of her mission as equally important.
“By documenting and validating the process, we’re not only helping the people we can reach directly, but the results and key features of the intervention will be placed into the literature so the information can be used by many others over time in the ongoing fight to better address this and other global or infectious diseases.”
